1. Technical Field
This disclosure generally relates to the field of games and more particularly to awarding bonus points to players of games.
2. Description of the Related Art
An entertainment center such as a casino may provide players with a game payout based on rules of a game. In addition to game payouts, an entertainment center may reward bonus points under a bonus point plan to players based on, among other things, a respective player's amount of wagering. Typically, a player enrolls in a bonus point plan and receives a membership card that identifies the player as a member of the bonus point plan.
Among other things, the bonus plan creates player loyalty to the specific entertainment center and/or to a group of entertainment centers. The earnings or accrual rate of bonus points under a bonus plan may be a percentage of current wagers. For example, a bonus point plan may have an accrual rate of 0.25%, and under such a bonus point plan a player would have one bonus point after four-hundred dollars ($400) of wagers. Under a different bonus point plan, a player may accrue a bonus point based on a certain amount of money wagered by the player. For example, a player may accrue a bonus point for every ten dollars ($10) of a wager.
Typically, a player may redeem bonus points for goods and/or services offered by the entertainment center and/or at bonus plan affiliated entities. For example, a player may redeem bonus points at a restaurant of the entertainment center and/or a restaurant affiliated with the bonus plan. Some entertainment centers have bonus plans with different membership levels, which may have different bonus point accrual rates. Some entertainment centers have bonus plans with bonus point redemption rates based on membership level. For example, a “Gold member” may have to spend seventy-five (75) bonus points for a one dollar credit for the cost of a meal, whereas a “Silver member” may have to spend 100 bonus points for a one dollar credit. Some entertainment centers allow a player to convert bonus points back into game credits playable at a gaming machine. In effect, the bonus points may be free game credits. Sometimes bonus points are restricted and can only be played and not cashed out.
Often, a bonus plan may have multiple bonus point accrual rates. The rate at which a player accrues bonus points may be based on the type of game and/or the specific game title being played by the player. For example, games of skill such as poker may have a lower bonus point accrual rate than the bonus point accrual rate of pure games of chance games such as video or mechanical slot machines. An entertainment center such as a casino may wish to give a smaller amount of bonus points back to players of video poker machines than to players of video or mechanical slot machines because of differences in hold percentages for the different games. For example, a casino's hold percentage for poker games is typically very small (usually 2-3%), but the casino's hold percentage for slot machines is typically larger, between 4-10%. To create player loyalty for slot machines, bonus point accrual rates of slot machines are typically higher than bonus point accrual rates for poker games. These accrual or earning rates are preconfigured at the casino's marketing server and stay fixed throughout the year. Casinos openly market with literature and advertisements of bonus point earnings rates. Similar marketing is done for the bonus point redemption rate or formula.
Some entertainment centers may award a bonus prize to a gaming machine by reconfiguring the gaming machine itself. When this happens the gaming machine is often reconfigured into a bonus payout mode where the player may get a multiple of a normal payout from a winning combination. This bonus period will end after predetermined bonus conditions occur and the gaming machine will be put back into normal payout mode. This reconfiguration of the gaming machine from one bonus plan payout mode to another bonus plan payout mode is not a dynamical reconfiguration of the gaming machine based at least on real-time data such as player activity, player statistics, etc. Rather, the aforementioned reconfiguration is scheduled in advance and is not based on real-time events.
Entertainment centers typically implement a bonusing system employing one or more computer servers/systems. A player is normally associated with player account that is stored on the bonusing systems. The player's account may include a membership number and may have bonus points associated with the membership number. A gaming machine usually has a device such as a magnetic card reader for identifying a bonus plan member via a player's membership card. Once the player is identified, bonus points are automatically added to the player account of the player at play time or when the player logs out or removes his membership card.
There is a need for systems, methods, and devices that provide dynamic bonus plan control at remote gaming machines.